Mayim’s Vegan Cookbook is Out Tomorrow

I wrote a vegan cookbook called Mayim’s Vegan Table with pediatrician and pediatric nutritionist Dr. Jay Gordon. It comes out tomorrow. You can get it at bookstores and online on Amazon.

Here are the Top 4 Questions I am always being asked about the book and this phase of my life.

1. Will there be a book tour?

Yes and no. De Capo Press is my publisher and I do what they say. They are sending me to New York in a few weeks to do press there during a hiatus week from “The Big Bang Theory.” I will be on “The Today Show” and also Katie Couric and Wendy Williams’ shows. I will do a ton of local press, phone interviews, print interviews, and stuff like that. I know that when some books come out, the authors go all over the place to sell it, but this is what my publisher has planned for me.

After I return to Los Angeles and go back to work on Big Bang, I will continue to do press for show business-y outlets like “The Insider” and such, and other press on and off pretty much for the rest of my life. Or a few months, which I think will come first. Ha. Ha. Ha. Bill Maher is the only evening talk show to commit to having me on as a guest and I am grateful for that opportunity which we will film on Valentine’s Day this coming Friday. Other evening talk shows are simply not booking me, and I get to stay up nights wondering why and talking to my therapist about it. Fun! If you’d like to, go ahead and call my publicist and ask about why evening talk shows won’t book me. But prepare to be on hold for a while, because my mom will likely already be on the phone with my publicist.

2. Do you do book signings?

I did book signings for my last book, Beyond the Sling, but for this one we don’t have any lined up. I know it’s fun to see me sitting in a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan and Los Angeles, but this time it’s not happening. Sorry!

3. Are you excited?

Um…sure. Yes. I am excited for this book to be published. It was actually Kveller readers who encouraged me to put my veganized recipes into the world and there are some really easy, nice, simple, and yummy recipes in the book which I think people (vegan and non-vegan alike) will like. It’s not an “emphasis on healthy” set of recipes, meaning there are recipes for tons of fun foods and things kids and adults who like yummy food will eat. Plus, just about all of the recipes you can make with stuff in your pantry, calling for very few ingredients you have never heard of. There is great information about nutrition, fun tidbits about how vegan children have play dates, go to other kids’ birthday parties without having “I wish I could eat that cake” meltdowns, and there are also heartfelt explanations about how and why being vegan doesn’t have to be expensive, time-consuming or elitist.

In addition, I hope this book will in some way make a positive impact on our knowledge and understanding of eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods and being less reliant on animals and animal by-products. While I do not believe that everyone needs to be vegan tomorrow, the costs to our global economy from using resources to keep and eat animals are far outstripping our ability to recuperate those losses. The costs to the environment and to our system of antibiotics and healthcare as a whole are incredibly significant because of our commitment (especially in the West) of consuming an unnaturally high amount of animals and animal by-products. The notion that animals have no rights to a decent and humane life is simply outdated and bears contemplation. The book offers a light touch on these issues, but I include a lot of resources and information if you are curious and want to learn more about the politics and sociological aspects of choosing more plant-based foods.

So yes; I am happy for all of that information to get out there.

4. Is it fun to be you?

Um..sometimes yes, sometimes not so much. I am excited to go to New York. I have some social things planned for the weekend I am there and not working, and New York is my favorite city next to Jerusalem, and being there in chilly February is something I am very excited for.

Is it stressful being an author of a book that I am sent out into the media to publicize? Sure. As you know from my writing here, I am not terribly comfortable in the spotlight. It’s not a natural thing to me to put myself out there and talk about myself and encourage people to buy things with my gigantic face on the cover. So it’s work to be this Mayim. It’s a job to write and to publicize a book. And I am grateful for this job, but it’s still a job so all the things that come with jobs come with mine, too if in strange and very public ways.

So, yeah. Buy my book. Please. Thank you.

Sometimes it’s fun to be me. Sometimes it’s hard to be me. My job is to make it look like it’s fun to be me. How am I doing?

Mayim Bialik blogs about parenting and Judaism on Kveller. She is best known for her current role as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, as well as her lead role in the 1990s NBC sitcom Blossom. She is the grandchild of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the mother of two young boys. She is the founder of GrokNation.